The Hospital for Sick Children was founded on 14 February 1852 after a long campaign by Dr. Charles West, and was the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children.[3]

Despite opening with just 10 beds, it grew into one of the world's leading children's hospitals through the patronage of Queen Victoria, counting Charles Dickens, a personal friend of the Chief Physician Dr West, as one of its first fundraisers. The Nurses League was formed in February 1937.[4]

Great Ormond Street Hospital was nationalised in 1948, becoming part of the National Health Service. During the early years of the NHS, private fundraising for the hospital was heavily restricted, though the hospital was permitted to continue to receiving pre-existing legacies.[5]

Audrey Callaghan, wife of James Callaghan (prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979), served the hospital as Chairman of the Board of Governors from 1968 to 1972 and then as Chairman of the Special Trustees from 1983 until her final retirement in 1990.[6]Diana, Princess of Wales, served as president of the Hospital from 1989 until her death. A plaque at the entrance of the hospital commemorates her services.[7]

The hospital's archives are available for research under the terms of the Public Records Act 1958 and a catalogue is available on request.[16] Admission records from 1852 to 1914 have been made available online on the Historic Hospital Admission Records Project.[17]

St. Christopher's Chapel is a chapel decorated in the Byzantine style and Grade II* listed building located in the Variety Club Building of the hospital. Designed by Edward Middleton Barry (son of the architect Sir Charles Barry who designed the Houses of Parliament) and built in 1875, it is dedicated to the memory of Caroline Barry, wife of William Henry Barry (eldest son of Sir Charles Barry) who provided the £40,000 required to build the Chapel and a stipend for the chaplain.[18] It was built in "elaborate Franco-Italianate style". As the chapel exists to provide pastoral care to ill children and their families, many of its details refer to childhood.The stained glass depicts the Nativity, the childhood of Christ and biblical scenes related to children. The dome depicts a pelican pecking at her breast in order to feed her young with drops of her own blood, a traditional symbol of Christ's sacrifice for humanity.[19]

When the old hospital was being demolished in the late 1980s, the chapel was moved to its present location via a 'concrete raft' to prevent any damage en route. The stained glass and furniture were temporarily removed for restoration and repair. It was reopened along with the new Variety Club Building on 14 February 1994 by Diana, Princess of Wales, then president of the hospital.[20]

In April 1929 the hospital was the recipient of playwright J. M. Barrie's copyright to the Peter Pan works, with the provision that the income from this source not be disclosed. This gave the institution control of the rights to these works, and entitled it to royalties from any performance or publication of the play and derivative works. Four theatrical feature films were produced,[21] innumerable performances of the play have been presented, and numerous editions of the novel were published under licence from the hospital. Its trustees commissioned a sequel novel, Peter Pan in Scarlet, which was published in 2006 and received mixed reviews,[22][23] with a film adaptation planned.[24][25]

When the copyright first expired at the end of 1987 in the UK, 50 years after Barrie's death, the UK government's Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988[26] granted the hospital a perpetual right to collect royalties for public performances, commercial publication, or other communications to the public of the work but this does not constitute a true copyright. When copyright term itself was subsequently extended to the author's life plus 70 years by a European Union directive in 1996 standardising terms throughout the EU, GOSH revived its copyright of Peter Pan which then expired in 2007. The terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act now prevail in the UK. GOSH has been in legal disputes in the United States, where the copyright term is based on date of publication, putting the 1911 novel in the public domain, although the Hospital asserts that the 1928 version of the play is still under copyright in the US.[27]

The hospital has relied on charitable support since it first opened.
One of the main sources for this support is Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity. Whilst the NHS meets the day-to-day running costs of the hospital, the fundraising income allows Great Ormond Street Hospital to remain at the forefront of child healthcare.[28] The charity aims to raise over £50 million every year to complete the next two phases of redevelopment, as well as provide substantially more fundraising directly for research. The charity also purchases up-to-date equipment, and provides accommodation for families and staff.[29][30]

Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity was one of the charities that benefited from the national Jeans for Genes campaign, which encourages people across the UK to wear their jeans and make a donation to help children affected by genetic disorders. All Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity's proceeds from the campaign went to its research partner, the UCL Institute of Child Health.[31]

On 6 August 2009, Arsenal F.C. confirmed that Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity was to be their 'charity of the season' for the 2009–10 season. They raised over £800,000 for a new lung function unit at the hospital.[32]

On 30 March 2010, Channel 4 staged the first Channel 4's Comedy Gala at the O2 Arena in London, in aid of the charity. The event has been repeated every year since, raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity each time.[35]

In 2011, Daniel Boys recorded a charity single called 'The World Is Something You Can Imagine'. It was also released as with proceeds going to the Disney Appeal at Great Ormond Street Hospital.[36]

^Lunnon, Raymond J. "The Chapel of St. Christopher"(pdf). Great Ormond Street Hospital. Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust. Archived from the original on 13 February 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2017.

University College Hospital

University College Hospital (UCLH) is a teaching hospital located in London, England. It is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is closely associated with University College London (UCL). The hospital is located on Euston Road in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, adjacent to the main campus of UCL. The nearest London Underground stations are Euston Square and Warren Street, with Goodge Street nearby.

Radio Lollipop

Radio Lollipop is a charitable organization providing a care, comfort, play and entertainment service for children in hospital. It organizes Volunteer Playmakers to spend time with children in wards or in special play areas, taking its name from the radio stations it runs in hospitals playing children's programming - part-presented by children themselves.

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS foundation trust based in London, United Kingdom. It comprises Royal Free Hospital, Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, as well as clinics run by the trust at Edgware Community Hospital, Finchley Memorial Hospital and North Middlesex University Hospital. On 1 July 2014 the Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust was acquired by Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, making it one of the largest Trusts in the country, employing more than 9,000 staff and providing services to about a million patients.

Peter and Wendy

Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up or Peter and Wendy is J. M. Barrie's most famous work, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel. Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous yet innocent little boy who can fly, and has many adventures on the island of Neverland that is inhabited by mermaids, fairies, Native Americans and pirates. The Peter Pan stories also involve the characters Wendy Darling and her two brothers, Peter's fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and the pirate Captain Hook. The play and novel were inspired by Barrie's friendship with the Llewelyn Davies family. Barrie continued to revise the play for years after its debut until publication of the play script in 1928.

UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health

The UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (ICH) is an academic department of the Faculty of Population Health Sciences of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1946 and together with its clinical partner Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), forms the largest concentration of children's health research in Europe. In 1996 the Institute merged with University College London. Current research focusses on broad biomedical topics within child health, ranging from developmental biology, to genetics, to immunology and epidemiology.

Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine

The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine is a specialist alternative medicine hospital located in London, England and a part of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It is the largest public sector provider of complementary medicine in Europe. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, adjacent to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street

University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street, named The Heart Hospital until refurbished and renamed in 2015, was a specialist cardiac hospital located in London, United Kingdom until 2015. It is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is closely associated with University College London (UCL). After the 2015 refurbishment the hospital now provides thoracic surgery, and urology services.

ASK Italian

ASK, also known as ASK Italian is a British casual dining restaurant chain that serves Italian cuisine in 120 locations in the UK.

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust runs Great Ormond Street Hospital. It is closely associated with University College London (UCL) and in partnership with the UCL Institute of Child Health, which it is located adjacent to, is the largest centre for research and postgraduate teaching in children’s health in Europe. It is part of both the Great Ormond Street Hospital/UCL Institute of Child Health Biomedical Research Centre and the UCL Partners academic health science centre.

St Christopher's Chapel, Great Ormond Street Hospital

St Christopher's Chapel is the chapel of Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, England. It is a grade II* listed building and is noted for its highly decorated interior.

Charlie Gard case

The Charlie Gard case was a best interests case in 2017 involving Charles Matthew William Gard, an infant boy from London, born with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (MDDS), a rare genetic disorder that causes progressive brain damage and muscle failure. MDDS has no treatment and usually causes death in infancy. The case became controversial because the medical team and parents disagreed about whether experimental treatment was in the best interests of the child.

Maria Bitner-Glindzicz

Maria Bitner-Glindzicz was a British medical doctor, honorary consultant in clinical genetics at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and a professor of human and molecular genetics at the UCL Institute of Child Health. The hospital described her work as relating to the "genetic causes of deafness in children and therapies that she hoped would one day restore vision." She researched Norrie disease and Usher syndrome, working with charities including Sparks and the Norrie Disease Foundation, and was one of the first colleagues involved in the 100,000 Genomes Project at Genomics England.